Each year, the European Health Management Conference gathers experts from Europe and beyond to discuss the most pressing issues affecting health management. Through high-level discussions, the conference aims to foster out-of-the-box thinking, best practices sharing, and solutions co-designing. By submitting an abstract and attending the conference, you can contribute to our vision of excellent health management and the improvement of European citizens’ and communities’ wellbeing.
Health systems rely on their workforce. An optimal staff planning, stimulating remunerations and incentives, and appropriate competence building are crucial to staff wellbeing and organisations’ functioning. However, countries are experiencing difficulties with health workforce education, employment, mobility, and retention. Long working hours, high level of stress, inadequate moral and financial recognition to the education level do not increase the attractiveness of the sector for young professionals. Health professionals often lack the skills that the digital transformation of healthcare requires. By 2050, the EU will have to cope with a shortage of 50 million health professionals.
The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the integral role of the health workforce to the functioning, resilience, and sustainability of health systems. The World Health Organisation (WHO) designated 2021 as the Year of Health and Care Workers in sign of appreciation of their dedication to the pandemic response. Nonetheless, the pandemic exacerbated previous hurdles. Being at the forefront of the pandemic response, health professionals carried the burden of an emergency that often impacted their quality of life and mental health and that paved the way to the post-COVID ‘great resignation’.
These trends threat the sustainability of our health systems and quality of care. As they manage systems, organisations and human resources, health managers have the responsibility as well as the opportunity to address and solve these challenges.
Human capital, professionalism and people management is one of the five tracks shaping the programme of EHMA 2024, together with five topics that represent current trends in healthcare. Tracks and topics have been identified in consultation with our Board of Directors, our Scientific Advisory Committee, and our membership.
If your research focuses on health workforce, share your results with the health management community.
Submit your abstract by Monday, 15 January 2024 at 10.00 (CET).
Check out the guidelines and submission form here: https://bit.ly/EHMA2024abstracts